Snowmobiles are vehicles adapted to circulate on snowy or icy surfaces. However, users often have to circulate on surface having little or no snow. These non-snow surfaces are often made from asphalt, concrete, stony ground, for example, which are highly abrasive for the undersurface of the snowmobile ski. Prior art shows some systems in which the user has to install wheels on the skis to circulate on abrasive surface to prevent the undersurface of the ski to contact the abrasive surface.
Disadvantage of such system is that the manipulation to install the wheel is complex and difficult. Indeed, in many of systems provided in prior art, the user has to stop the snowmobile, get down from it and install manually the wheels, pass through the zone with little or no snow, stop again the snowmobile and remove the wheels. These manipulations have for consequence that the users will not install the wheel and pass through the zone with little or no snow on the ski, causing a premature wear of the ski.
Also, in snowy condition, the wheel systems may be jam with snow or ice, increasing the difficulty of the manipulation.
Finally, it is important to consider where the systems are installed on skis. Since the weight of the snowmobile is directly transmitted to the ski, the latter are under high mechanical stresses. In some systems of prior art, fixation holes are practiced in the ski, weakening the ski and causing eventually the breaking of the ski. Since the skis are reinforced where they are attached to the snowmobile, it would be advantageous to install the wheel in this section. Indeed, if the wheels are installed in a non-reinforced zone, the ski will bend, diminishing the contact surface between the snow and the ski. This configuration diminishes the performance of the ski on snow. It also causes an inadequate distribution of the weight of the snowmobile on the ski and a premature wear.
A deformation of the skis may occur if the wheel system is installed on a part of the ski that is not reinforced, causing the ski to bend under the weight of the snowmobile. Furthermore, the wear bar usually install on the undersurface of a ski will be highly affected by such a stress and curvature. It is known that the wear bar is made from carbide having high hardness and thus being highly fragile. As a consequence, the wear bar will become cracked and chipped.